Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Coined IceCube, it is literally a kilometre by kilometre detector buried in the
ice under South Pole.
In the 1990s, astronomers further recognised that the cold, dry atmosphere
of the Antarctic plateau provided several excellent viewing windows in the
electromagnetic spectrum in which to observe the Universe. These included regions
in the microwave, sub-millimetre and infrared parts of the electromagnetic
spectrum. A concerted effort to organise the astronomy community was initiated
at South Pole under the National Science Foundation
'
s Center for Antarctic
Research in Astronomy (CARA), and one of the
first instruments installed was
the South Pole Infrared Explorer (SPIREX). This 0.6-m diameter SPIREX telescope
was designed to observe cool stars, distant galaxies and heavily obscured star-
forming regions. Serendipitously, however, during the long winter night in July
1994, the winter-over research crew captured some of the world
'
s best pictures of
the collision between the comet Shoemaker
Levy and Jupiter. South Pole was
uniquely positioned to observe this collision since Jupiter did not rise or set at
this location, enabling continuous observations.
Astrophysicists in Antarctica have also turned their attention to fundamental
properties of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the afterglow of the
Big Bang that was discovered in 1965 at Bell Laboratories by Arno Penzias and Robert
Wilson. Using a radio telescope called the Degree Angular Scale Interferometer
(DASI) at South Pole Station, University of Chicago scientists measured a slight
polarisation to the CMB. Earlier results revealed small temperature differences in
the cosmic microwave background, supporting a dramatic expansion explanation
of the early Universe known as in
-
ation theory. Several new initiatives include the
South Pole Telescope, a 10m sub-millimetre telescope designed to investigate the
properties of the mysterious dark energy that permeates the Universe.
At even higher altitudes on the plateau, there is promise for perhaps even
better seeing conditions than at South Pole. A French
Italian station at Dome C is
now complete and operating through the winter and site testing is underway
through the Concordia-astronomy programme. At Dome A, the top of the Antarctic
plateau, China has established a new station, and deployed the Australian-built
PLATeau Observatory, a truly international collaboration, with instruments
contributed from Australia, China, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the
United States. One of the initial instruments deployed is CSTAR (Chinese Small
Telescope ARray). This telescope is composed of four identical telescopes that will
study variable stars and sky brightness. The newly established Astronomy and
Astrophysics research programme under the auspices of the Scienti
-
c Committee on
Antarctic Research should enable and foster such collaborative efforts for the
foreseeable future.
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